The summer of LeBron began at 10:53pm ET in Boston last Thursday, a lot earlier than expected. And yes, it’s still only spring.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ early exit from the 2010 playoffs at the hands of the Boston Celtics means that we’re in for a whopping 48 days of futile speculation between now and July 1 – the date LeBron James can opt out of his contract and become a free agent.
As ESPN insider John Hollinger commented on his Twitter feed, even Lent only lasts for 40-days. We’re in for a long ride.
Firstly, let’s get one thing straight: the odds are now firmly in favour of LeBron packing up his Ohio home and moving on.
Deep down, he’s known this for a while.
He knew this long before he ripped off his Cavaliers jersey (quite possibly for the final time) and threw it in disgust at a Cleveland assistant in the locker room after Game 6.
He knew this long before his team packed-up shop with a little over a minute to go, amazingly not even bothering to foul a Celtics player, coach Mike Brown basically saying, “I’m out”.
In fact, we must go back to Game 5 to find the tipping point, the moment when everything culminated for LeBron, and the weight of his future went free falling away from Cleveland.
With the Cavaliers facing a 22-point deficit in the final quarter of Game 5 – a deficit too vast to surmount – LeBron stepped up to the free throw line. Having played one of the most futile, nonchalant games in his seven-year career, it was clear that his focus wasn’t entirely on the task at hand.
In the biggest of moments – and Game 5 in Cleveland last Wednesday doesn’t get much bigger – he hadn’t delivered.
Clang!
His first free throw bounced off the front of the rim. As he collected himself for the second shot, a certain clamor began to resonate around the arena. It was a noise that he’d probably never heard before in Cleveland, at least not directed at him.
As it rumbled from the upper deck, down to the courtside seats, LeBron James must have felt it echoing deep into his soul. For the very first time, Cleveland fans were booing their greatest player.
With his free agency fate hanging in the balance, and potential suitors such as the New York Knicks practically camped out the front of LeBron’s house, was it really wise for a city with such a tormented sporting past to boo its most important athlete?
James spent the last four minutes of Game 5 sitting on the bench, chewing his fingernails (a bad habit that he professed to have given up years ago).
Considering the catastrophic meltdown by the league’s top team, Cleveland fans will be doing the same thing as they wait to see whether a chorus of disenchanting jeers will be their parting gift for the hometown kid from Akron.
In the bowels of the Quicken Loans Arena at the Game 5 postgame press conference, James made a rare semi-candid confession regarding his atypical poor performance. “I spoil a lot of people with my play,” James said.
Taking into account what had transpired roughly an hour earlier, it seems that none have been more spoilt over the years than the local Cleveland Cavaliers fans.
Whether they knew that they were taking James’ otherworldly athleticism and skills for granted is unknown.
But if they were, it could be too late to make amends.
The worrying thing now for NBA commissioner David Stern is that the countdown to July 1 may overshadow the NBA playoffs. In the 24-hours following the Cavaliers playoffs exit, the lead news story across the nation centered around one man.
People wanted to know whether they should totally re-evaluate how they viewed LeBron James. Issues of greater international importance such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were reduced to mere footnotes, as the internet and print media went catatonic over what had taken place, and LeBron James was left to wallow in the mire.
The acerbic response from the media was phenomenal, and it would be slightly amiss to think that this issue will not feature on SportCenter in one way or another, almost every night from now until July 1.
Knowing this, the NBA will be fervently promoting the product that they are still showcasing – the NBA playoffs – savvy to the fact that the public’s conscience will be slightly distracted by what has occurred.
For those who remember, we have been here before.
The precedent for such a momentous offseason dominated by marquee free agents was set back in 1996, when LeBron’s 2010 Cavaliers teammate, Shaquille O’Neal, then just 24 years-old (James is currently 25), was at the centre of one of the biggest moves in league history.
How it all unfolded was not dissimilar to what is currently developing right now.
The 1996 Eastern Conference Finals between the top-ranked Chicago Bulls and the second-seed Orlando Magic was a highly anticipated affair, and the scene was set for a transfixing showdown. But the Magic failed to perform, and quickly found themselves facing a 0-2 deficit.
In a must-win Game 3 (much like the Cavaliers recent Game 5 calamity), the Magic faltered again, with prodigious young centre Shaquille O’Neal going 8-19 from the field (his third worst field-goal shooting performance of the season) and an abysmal 1-9 from the free throw line.
He also committed five turnovers.
Despite a sub-par game from Michael Jordan, the Bulls were able to restrict the upstart Magic to 67 points – at the time, the second-lowest playoff total in NBA history – to win the game by 19 points and set the Magic up for their third playoffs sweep in as many years.
Shaq’s errant free throw shooting was blamed for the catastrophic result of the series (he shot 39.3 percent), and Magic fans began to turn on their transcendent superstar.
Shortly after Orlando was bundled out, an America’s Research Group poll showed that, amazingly, 69 percent of Magic fans thought that the team should not match a contract offer for O’Neal.
For free agents, the 1996 off-season, like 2010, was one to remember.
Sports Illustrated writer Jackie McMullan called July 1, 1996, “the day the most talented crop of players in league history will become free agents”. Michael Jordan, Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton, Allan Houston, Reggie Miller and Shaquille O’Neal all had the opportunity to change teams.
Ultimately though, the majority of the big name players stayed put. Jordan signed a one-year deal with Chicago and Mourning, Payton and Miller signed extensions with their respective teams.
But not Shaq.
Inspired by his love of rap music, and to further his fledging movie career (he would film popcorn classic’s such as Kazaam and Blue Chips in the NBA off season), O’Neal left behind his Florida home and headed west for the glitz and glamour of Hollywood Boulevard.
The Los Angeles Lakers secured his services by inking him to an amazing seven-year, $120-million contract – at the time, the most lucrative deal in team sports history.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Shaq – teamed with a young Kobe Bryant – went on to win three consecutive NBA championships with the Lakers (2000, 2001, 2002), bringing the Showtime swagger back to L.A.
LeBron James now finds himself weighed down heavily by analogous burdens that confronted a young Shaquille O’Neal: the shortfalls of a talented team, one that has continuously faltered under the intense pressure of the playoffs; the backlash of a fierce local media that has back-flipped on their unbridled admiration of their best player and is now suddenly questioning his ability to win big games; the punditry from the talking-heads on television, dissecting his game like the forensic unit on an episode of CSI; Home fans giving the thumbs down to the most important player in their franchise’s history after a below par postseason performance; and ultimately, an athlete with greater ambitions than to just play basketball.
It’s quite possible that like Shaq, who was broomed out of three straight playoff series before changing teams, all LeBron needs is a fresh beginning. Put behind what he has done, and focus on what he can possibly achieve.
This past week isn’t his entire legacy.
His legacy in Cleveland?
Quite possibly, but as a whole, this is merely part of it, and only LeBron knows where the next chapter will be written. Two games do not define a career.
Ever since he stepped foot onto an NBA parquet floor he has exceeded our expectations. From his phenomenal rookie season, to his Jordan-esque Game 5 in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals. Even as the 2009 MVP, with statistics of 28.4 points, 7.6 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game, he got better in 2010.
And he will continue to get better.
It just may be in another uniform, in front of different fans.
LeBron’s career, seven-year’s young, is still in its formative stages. Nothing definitive has been written yet, as far as I’m aware. And that’s the beauty of sports. There’s still next year, and the year after, and the year after that. There’s the chance of redemption when all seems lost.
It’s now up to LeBron to shape the denouement of his story.
As the curtain came down on the Cleveland Cavaliers 2010 season last Thursday night in Boston, ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy quintessentially summarized the events that had just transpired and how they will affect the future.
“It changes many lives”, Van Gundy poignantly highlighted.
It most certainly will.
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